Editor's Note

The Charge

Tony Manero: Would ya just watch the hair. Ya know, I work on my hair a long
time and you hit it. He hits my hair.

Opening Statement

Saturday Night Fever (30th Anniversary Special Collector's Edition)
marks a return to a film that has been on DVD several times over already. It is
a '70s classic, a shimmering dramatic musical that defined a generation and a
movement. This wasn't a movie, it was a pop culture phenomenon that reshaped
music, the cinema, and dancing. The soundtrack album surpassed all sales
records, the film was an R-rated big profit hit without special effects, and it
ushered in a new respect for dance to deliver a gritty story in a modern way.
The film certainly deserves as much attention as Paramount is willing to give
it, but is yet another release of Saturday Night Fever what we need on
DVD? There was a 25th anniversary DVD that already provided a solid look at the
film as well as a satisfying transfer. For this new release new segments are
included, and only the commentary is ported over from the previous disc. Will it
continue the boogie fever or leave us stranded on disco mountain?

Facts of the Case

Tony Manero (John Travolta, Wild
Hogs) is a lovable loser living in Brooklyn in quiet desperation. He is a
paint store employee, but at night he is a hero on a dance floor. Saturday
Night Fever is simply a character study of a man who lives for the weekend,
and a glimpse at how horrible he is except for when he is moving in a swirl of
lights and smoke. The life around the musical segments is gritty, hard, and
foul. The plot follows Tony as he prepares for a dance contest at a local disco
named 2001, and his romance with a snooty dance partner (Karen Gorney). We see
him hang out with crowd of friends, fight with his family, and spend his entire
paycheck on clothes and alcohol. He seems to be going nowhere fast and becoming
a nobody. The world is cold, cruel, and full of bad things, but the dancing is
what makes life sublime.

The Evidence

The production was troubled when it started filming in the '70s. The original
director John G. Avildsen (Attica) walked off the project and at the last
minute John Badham (WarGames) stepped
in to take over. Star John Travolta lost the love of his life girlfriend Diana
Hyland to cancer during the filming, and it was questionable whether he would
return to the set and complete filming. When he did return, fans of the actor
made location shooting problematic as they often swarmed the streets making
location filming problematic. Saturday Night Fever was finally released
in 1977, and surprisingly the film and the soundtrack were instant smashes. It's
reach became long, and the film was even released in two versions (R rated and
PG) so that everyone could experience it.

Saturday Night Fever made Travolta a star, sold more albums than any
other soundtrack, and inspired a trend that took disco into the mainstream. It's
a movie that has lived on in pop culture with iconic imagery and easily
identifiable music. Certainly the film belongs in any serious movie buff's
library, and it's something everyone should watch at least once to understand
how a musical can be gritty and compelling. It is often cited as the favorite
film of legendary critic Gene Siskel, who even purchased the white suit seen in
the climactic dance sequence. Travolta would return again and again to the
screen in various dance roles including an ill-advised sequel called Staying Alive, but Saturday Night
Fever remains his shining moment when his charisma was perfectly married to
a character.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Their isn't much difference from the technical side of things for this new
release. The transfer looks to be about the same as what was seen five years
ago, a solid effort that looked good but revealed limitations. Saturday Night
Fever was filmed on typical '70s film stock, and it makes for a problematic
digital transfer. Grain and black levels make the picture inky at times, and the
colors can look washed out by the intense disco lighting and the age of the
source material. Much of the film has been cleaned up for DVD, and it looks
better than it did even on release. I did detect some minor edge enhancement,
but nothing problematic. Amazingly even though the bright disco lights are
intense, there is no detectable color bleeding. Even with the clean up effort
you will notice a distinct '70s look which might not be a bad thing given the
subject material. The five channel sound mix reveals some '70s limitations as
well. You'll notice poorly looped dialogue out of sequence with the film's
action, and sometimes directional effects seem thin. The music sometimes sounds
more tinny than it should, but for the most part it is amped up nicely for DVD.
It looks like perhaps a little work has been done to the images five years
later, but nothing that suggests a major overhaul. Maybe they are saving that
for a next generation release on one of the high definition formats.

Extras are plentiful, but they don't penetrate the veil of the film as
effectively as previous editions released such as the 25th Anniversary version.
All new featurettes are assembled under one section called "Catching the
Fever" which includes recent interviews from the cast and director John
Badham. These are interesting segments, but one key player is missing. Essential
to the film is lead John Travolta, and he does not make an appearance in the
newly produced segments for this thirty year anniversary edition. Without his
voice you can't have a truly insightful look at the film. Music supervisors and
soundtrack artists the Bee Gees are interviewed for the first time on DVD during
the soundtrack segment, and this is the best addition to the interviews on the
disc. It's nice to finally hear their side of the story about working on the
music for the film. The other aging supporting players, producer, and director
are all neat to see, but nobody's breathlessly waiting for their memories which
have been collected five years ago as well. We even get a guided tour of the
locations as they look today which proves to be uninteresting except for the
fact only half of them have changed. Ported over from a previous edition is a
solid commentary by director John Badham which is well constructed and
entertaining. Falling into the useless feature category, we also get dance
lessons both in a studio with a choreographer not affiliated with the movie and
in the form of a Dance Dance Revolution lighted square guide. One feature
is provides pop culture trivia about disco in bubbles on the screen while the
movie plays called the "discopedia." These non-interview features
don't mean much, and they are only there for the bored and gullible.

If I were going to assemble the ultimate Saturday Night Fever disc
there are many things that could end up on the final product. The film was
released in two versions, and somehow both the R rated and PG versions were
released on VHS. Yet to date the trimmed down less raunchy PG cut has not been
included on any DVD release. While it is not an improvement of the film, it is a
historical event that has gotten short shrift in retrospect. It was a marketing
feat that has yet to be replicated. Missing in action from a previous edition is
a VH-1 Behind the Music look at the film which chronicled the production
in a more cohesive way with the input of Travolta. Why this isn't included is a
mystery, and the disc suffers for the lack of it. I don't understand why
Paramount decided to not include the deleted scenes found on their previous
release, and even more puzzling the insightful Behind the Music episode.
Had they married the new extras with these features their could be a definitive
release of the film complete with John Travolta, John Badham, and the Bee
Gees.

Closing Statement

Saturday Night Fever (30th Anniversary Special Collector's Edition)
doesn't add much to the film, but it does deliver a previously seen solid
transfer with a lot of new extras of dubious value. Without John Travolta, the
VH-1 Behind the Music segment, and the deleted scenes it feels less
complete than the 25th anniversary edition (which is easily found on both Amazon
and eBay). The only significant addition is a good discussion with the Bee Gees
about the iconic soundtrack which might make the disc attractive for completists
though not good for a first definitive purchase. This thirty year anniversary
release is a good deal only if you don't own previous editions, and just want a
good transfer and some fun extras. True fans will already own the earlier disc,
and they have little reason to double dip at this point.

The Verdict

Guilty of being the coolest thing John Travolta ever has done, Saturday
Night Fever is a classic and a seminal musical event. Too bad this latest
DVD is guilty of not living up to a previous edition. For this judge it comes in
second in the dance contest.